Welcome to Day 8 Yesterday we worked on our unit plans, shared our stories and started to record stories. We also listened to a video by Sherry Turkle called Together Alone and Tweeted on it. Today
Play: the capacity to experiment with one's surroundings as a form of problem-solving. Having a strong sense of play can be helpful when you pick up a new piece of technology that you've never used before, when you're trying to write an essay and your outline isn't functioning as you'd hoped, and when you're designing anything at all, from a dress to a web page to a concert's program.
Schools are currently still training autonomous problem-solvers, whereas as students enter the workplace, they are increasingly being asked to work in teams, drawing on different sets of expertise, and collaborating to solve problems.
When children are deep at play they engage with the fierce, intense attention that we’d like to see them apply to their schoolwork. Interestingly enough, no matter how intent and focused a child is at that play, maybe even grimly determined they may be at that game play, if you asked them afterwards, they will say that they were having fun. So, the fun of game play is not non-stop mirth but rather the fun of engaging of attention that demands a lot of you and rewards that effort. I think most good teachers believe that in the best moments, classroom learning can be the same kind of fun. But a game is a moment when the kid gets to have that in spades, when the kid gets to be focused and intent and hard- working and having fun at the same time. (Jenkins, 2006b)
Educators (in school and out) tap into play as a skill when they encourage free-form experimentation and open-ended speculation.
Task
You will be put in groups of 4. Each of you will explore one of these tools and then report back to your group about how the tool works and what you might use it for. You may want to start by going to Youtube and finding a video on the tool to get a good idea of how it works.
Multimedia Tools- Some very interesting tools to try out. This is a web-site that lists a whole variety of different web 2.0 tools.
Glogsterr- A great tool for creating on-line posters that you can share.
Animaps is a service that allows you to animate a marker over a Google Map. Create visual tours with Animaps that show location, route, and duration.
Has been turned into the following cartoon using Cartoonize
Big Huge Labs allows you to create some really interesting things using your photos like magazine covers , mosaics or puzzles with your own photos.
Voicethread Weave uploaded or flickr imported images into a media presentation with multiple voices. Record audio, video, or add text or drawn annotations. Others can add video, audio, and text comments as well. Allows for great collaboration. See also VoiceThread for Education wiki.
Dipity is a time line tool that students can use to create and share time-lines that can include images, videos and text.
B. Digital Storytelling
Once your story is recorded you need to place the voice-over recording and the photo in the file on your desk top.
We will work through the process together but you may also look at the following tutorial to help you create your digital story.
You can also check out Youtube for tutorials on how to use MovieMaker.
MovieMaker is a free video editing software that can be downloaded on any PC.
C. Skype
We will be Skyping with a fellow teacher in Canada as well as a group of teachers at the Grammar School.
The service allows users to communicate with peers by voice, video, and instant messaging over the Internet. Phone calls may be placed to recipients on the traditional telephone networks. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free of charge, while calls to landline telephones and mobile phones are charged via a debit-based user account system.
Yesterday we worked on our unit plans, shared our stories and started to record stories. We also listened to a video by Sherry Turkle called Together Alone and Tweeted on it.
Today
A. New Media Literacies
Play: the capacity to experiment with one's surroundings as a form of problem-solving. Having a strong sense of play can be helpful when you pick up a new piece of technology that you've never used before, when you're trying to write an essay and your outline isn't functioning as you'd hoped, and when you're designing anything at all, from a dress to a web page to a concert's program.
Schools are currently still training autonomous problem-solvers, whereas as students enter the workplace, they are increasingly being asked to work in teams, drawing on different sets of expertise, and collaborating to solve problems.
When children are deep at play they engage with the fierce, intense attention that we’d like to see them apply to their schoolwork. Interestingly enough, no matter how intent and focused a child is at that play, maybe even grimly determined they may be at that game play, if you asked them afterwards, they will say that they were having fun. So, the fun of game play is not non-stop mirth but rather the fun of engaging of attention that demands a lot of you and rewards that effort. I think most good teachers believe that in the best moments, classroom learning can be the same kind of fun. But a game is a moment when the kid gets to have that in spades, when the kid gets to be focused and intent and hard- working and having fun at the same time. (Jenkins, 2006b)
Educators (in school and out) tap into play as a skill when they encourage free-form experimentation and open-ended speculation.
Task
You will be put in groups of 4. Each of you will explore one of these tools and then report back to your group about how the tool works and what you might use it for. You may want to start by going to Youtube and finding a video on the tool to get a good idea of how it works.
Multimedia Tools- Some very interesting tools to try out. This is a web-site that lists a whole variety of different web 2.0 tools.
Glogsterr- A great tool for creating on-line posters that you can share.
Animaps is a service that allows you to animate a marker over a Google Map. Create visual tours with Animaps that show location, route, and duration.
Cartoonize
Has been turned into the following cartoon using Cartoonize
Big Huge Labs allows you to create some really interesting things using your photos like magazine covers , mosaics or puzzles with your own photos.
Voicethread Weave uploaded or flickr imported images into a media presentation with multiple voices. Record audio, video, or add text or drawn annotations. Others can add video, audio, and text comments as well. Allows for great collaboration. See also VoiceThread for Education wiki.
Dipity is a time line tool that students can use to create and share time-lines that can include images, videos and text.
B. Digital Storytelling
Once your story is recorded you need to place the voice-over recording and the photo in the file on your desk top.
We will work through the process together but you may also look at the following tutorial to help you create your digital story.
You can also check out Youtube for tutorials on how to use MovieMaker.
MovieMaker is a free video editing software that can be downloaded on any PC.
C. Skype
We will be Skyping with a fellow teacher in Canada as well as a group of teachers at the Grammar School.
The service allows users to communicate with peers by voice, video, and instant messaging over the Internet. Phone calls may be placed to recipients on the traditional telephone networks. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free of charge, while calls to landline telephones and mobile phones are charged via a debit-based user account system.
D. Your Unit
Continue working on your unit plan.